


looking glass

by angrylizardjacket (ephemeralstar)



Series: And All The Queen's Men 'verse [8]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018)
Genre: Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-08 20:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17393450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ephemeralstar/pseuds/angrylizardjacket
Summary: All That Glitters makes Lilith emotional upon her first viewing.





	looking glass

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little thing I came up with for the ‘All The Queen’s Men’ ‘verse regarding the family (Roger, Giselle, Lilith, Rosemary, and Maggie (lilith’s daughter)) seeing Giselle’s movie for the first time.

Lilith doesn’t cry, okay, well, she does, but not in movies. She sat through ‘ _Titanic_ ’ without shedding a tear, and yeah maybe the other professors thought she was heartless when she admitted ’ _Marley & Me_’ wasn’t that moving, but she’s not. She knows it’s all fabricated, it’s  _designed_  to tug at your heartstrings, and she won’t let some  _movie_  guilt her into emotions like that. She  _definitely_  wasn’t going to cry in the biopic about her mother; she’d always known too much about her mother to be surprised by anything that was happening on screen, though the juxtaposition of the calmness of her manager’s office when he’s telling her she has a certain reputation to uphold, which cuts between shots of ’ _Giselle_ ’ partying it up with Queen and other rock legends of the decade, did make Lilith chuckle. She’s not a robot, she enjoys a good laugh if it’s earned. It hurts a little, to watch the way they’ve portrayed her father cheating, how raw it felt, and all five of the Taylors sitting in a row in the theatre, are very sombre. 

Then it’s revealed that ’ _Giselle_ ’ is pregnant, which, okay, that wasn’t how it went down in real life, but whatever, it fits the narrative. They watch ’ _Giselle_ ’ take ’ _Roger_ ’ back, watch them plan for the arrival of the baby, and tension rises until ’ _Giselle_ ’ goes into labour, and then the scene grows quiet, with a close up on the face of the woman playing her mother breathing heavily as her eyes fall closed with exhaustion, and there’s the sound of a baby crying, and then another, and ’ _Roger_ ’s soft cooing. ’ _Giselle_ ’ opens her eyes and the camera cuts back, showing it’s later, she’s changed and is waking up from a nap, and the gentle, uplifting piano notes of ’ _Finally, Sunlight’_  begin, and ‘Roger’ walks into frame.

“ _This_ ,” he says gently, placing a bundled up baby in ’ _Giselle_ ’s arms, “ _is Lilith_.” And in the audience, Lilith herself feels a startled laugh pulled from her, vision fogging a little, and she doesn’t realise she’s crying until he comes back on screen with a second baby, “ _and_ this  _is Marigold_.” There’s so much pride and joy in the actress’s eyes as she looks at the beautiful faces of the two little babies, and after a moment she’s crying with joy.

“ _My girls_ ,” ’ _Giselle_ ’ whispers on screen, and baby Marigold reaches up to paw at her face, and she presses a kiss to the baby’s chubby little hand, “ _my beautiful girls_.” And it sounds so much like Lilith’s actual mother that she can’t help the sob that escapes her.

Lilith’s never missed Marigold, has never gotten the chance, but she thinks about her on occasion, and considers what it would have been like to have her around. She’s had Rose for as long as she can remember, and that’s all she’s ever needed, but it must be so different to be a parent, to have to have gone through everything they went through. Giselle doesn’t talk about her a lot unless someone else brings her up, but Lilith knows she thinks about her often; and as if on cue, Giselle, from beside her in the audience, wraps her arms around Lilith, holding her sobbing, eldest daughter to her side.

“I treasure you, my dear.” Giselle whispers to Lilith in the movie theatre, quiet enough that no-one else can hear. The scene doesn’t have the same effect on Rosemary, though she’ll come to cry when ‘ _Giselle_ ’ finds out about Marigold’s passing, but she knows it would be strange for Lilith, and pats her sister on the shoulder, reaching over Maggie’s head, and when Lilith sits up, her daughter hugs her, knowing, instinctual, that her mother needs it.

“My beautiful girl.” Lilith parrots softly to Maggie, pressing a kiss into her hair. Maggie hugs her a little tighter.


End file.
